The Dilemma of Finding a Good Christian School

puppy dog at a vet

Christian people often feel a bit isolated in society.  And for a Christian family, the decision about how to raise your children to be active in the faith but still able to function in a world full of people of many religious views is a constant challenge.  Probably one of the most significant decisions you may have to make that will have far-ranging implications on the way your kids interact with the world and how they view their faith is whether to let them go to public school or take the step of putting them in a quality Christian private school where they can exercise their faith openly and without fear of ridicule or limitations.

Christian parents are no different from any other mom and dad who are seeking nothing but the best for their kids.  And when evaluating schools, the quality of education has to be the top consideration.  Many times public schools do offer top-notch programs simply because large public schools can afford to provide diverse programs and a robust curriculum of support activities, including sports, theater and the arts.  And if your son is gifted in basketball, football, or swimming, many times public school is the only option if he has aspirations to work professionally in this field of athletics that God has gifted him.

Socially your kids may also prefer to go to public school for the simple reason that many of their friends go there, and to sequester them into a Christian private school may separate them from friends they have known for many years.  Having an active support group and peer network is one of the significant factors that makes many young people happy and productive in their school environment.  It is not unlikely that even other church kids with whom your child has grown close may be opting for public school because of the strength of the programs, not to mention the reduced costs to their parents.

From a faith perspective, there is something to be said for allowing your kids to mix with students of many faiths or with students that have no religious affiliation at all.  It is part of the Christian calling to be of a positive influence in the world and if your kids are healthy in their faith and the joy of being raised with a strong faith comes out in their personalities, that can be a draw to Christianity for other kids who would benefit from the loving culture and the active religious teaching your church offers.  So the “evangelistic” considerations of keeping your kids “in the world” might also influence your decision on where they should go to school.

The extent to which your child can exercise his or her faith at the school without fear of intimidation or harassment is also a factor in this decision.  The culture of many public schools allows freedom of religion so the Christian kids can meet for bible study and prayer just as much as the children of other faiths are welcome to gather and celebrate their beliefs freely and in public as well.  If this is the setting in your town’s public schools, your kids may be able to abide peacefully in that community without difficulty.

However, some communities and the public school cultures in those communities have become hostile to religious expression of any sort.  You see how that plays out in many schools where it gets so out of hand that students are ostracized and prosecuted for merely gathering in a public space to discuss their faith or pray.  This is not in truth a violation of the separation of church and state guidelines in the First Amendment, but these communities use that concept to harass Christian kids.  And if that is the culture at the public school level, that may begin of exodus of many Christian kids, including yours to quality Christian private schools in your area. Of course, when considering that shift, the Christian private schools must also measure up academically and foster a culture where children of many denominations can gather and celebrate their shared faith equally and joyfully.  But in such a school, prayer can be part of the daily life of class, bible study part of the curriculum, and worship included in all assemblies.  And this can be a tremendous blessing to your kids when they can enjoy their belief and ethics faithfully even while at school.

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Taking Control of Moral Education

Bilberry board

Taking control of Moral Education is fundamentally vital for the social welfare of your children at a early age. It is the responsibility of parents to be educated and fully in the know what is morally right and what is morally wrong. It is irresponsible of the parents to pass on their responsibilities as parents onto their children, by saying let them figure it out for themselves. Education and learning is much higher priority than making children. Once parents are learned and educated, then their children will be much more confident in life, because their parents made the effort in advance to work out what is life about before making children.

People remove their children from public school and move to private schools for many reasons.  For one thing, the contract you have with a private school is in every way different than your relationship with public school.    Because you pick your private school, the schools in your area compete for your “business.”  That means they work for you, and they are responsible to live up to their promises to you when you pay them to educate your child.

This phase of the process, when you are interviewing various private schools, is when you have the chance to stipulate precisely what part of the education of your child you are prepared to hand over to the school and what parts you do not want them fooling around with.  For most parents, we are looking to send the child to school learn about history, English, science, math, foreign language art, composition, and other academic subjects that they need to conquer to be a success in college and eventually in life.

Unfortunately, public schools also take it upon themselves to educate children in what might be considered moral, ethical, or even religious areas of life.  And for many parents, this is meddling and imposing values on their children that the school has no right to impose and that is outside their authorization to do so.  No other subject better illustrates this principle than sex education. 

Sex education in schools is a topic of considerable controversy.  And it will continue to be controversial because it is something most parents do not want to see the schools getting involved with and something most schools very much want to have as part of their curriculum.  The grey area comes in the realm of physical education.  Lessons on hygiene, anatomy, and how the human body works are a natural part of the science or physical education curriculum.  So you might be able to understand if part of that education is to go over how the human sex organs work from a scientific point of view.

Even at this basic level, though, parents often feel they should be consulted on what they want their children to know.  The age-old image of dad sitting on the porch and explaining the birds and the bees to his son is time-honored and revered in families, and we are as a society not comfortable with handing that job over to some stranger whose values we know nothing about.

But sex education in schools doesn’t usually end with a necessary discussion of the medical of physical properties of the body.  Many schools have a more advanced curriculum that covers the sex act, how pregnancy works, venereal disease and “recreational” sex activities as well in some cases.  And some of the more aggressive programs provide condoms to the children “just in case.”

You may become alarmed at any or all of this level of instruction if it is to be considered part of a public school’s educational program.  The problem is because our contract with public schools gives no control to parents, you only have the choice of be quiet and let them teach what they will or remove your child to move to a private school who is more prepared to regard the parent’s wishes in regards to sex education or any other areas of moral, ethical or religious education that they wish to carry out at home.

If these kinds of programs at the public school level are what has alarmed you and began your transition to become a private school family, you are not alone.  And maybe if enough families go this route, the public schools will get the message that parents have rights in these matters and those rights must be respected.

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Teaching Subjects or Teaching Students

teacher and children

Teaching school is as much a calling as it is a job.  And, when you review the teachers at the school where your child will be going, you will notice that the good ones are as many missionaries with a zeal for guiding young minds as they are people who come to work to perform a function.  But there can be no question that what makes any school great whether it’s the most expensive private school in town or a public school with overcrowded classes is the quality of the teachers who will be with your child for hours each day.

For a teacher, deciding whether to go to the public or private school route can be a tough decision.  While the environment of every school is different, the calling of each teacher might be somewhat different.  For teachers with a specific focus such as in music or art, to teach in a private school devoted to that niche of education is ideal.  But many teachers seek to educate young people in a general area of knowledge such as math or English feel called to teach, but the subject matter isn’t as crucial.  And for this type of teacher who thrives on larger classes and on taking disinterested students and transforming them into devout scholars, the public-school setting is the right choice.

For parents evaluating schools, if you sit in on classes and can watch teachers work with their students, you can learn a lot just seeing that interaction and observing the body language of the teacher and how they present themselves to the class.  Much of the confidence and sense of creative presentation that comes from the best teachers reflects the relationship between the school itself and the teacher.

Many times in a public school situation, teachers can become so burdened with rules and stipulations that come down from the state and pertain to student behaviour, safety guidelines, and other non-academic items that, while important, can dilute the real relationship between teacher and subject and student. 

So if you see a teacher who is having success establishing rapport with the students and engaging them with personality and humour in the subject at hand, you may be witnessing a public school administration that made it a point to make the purpose of each classroom to be about education and that is reflected in teacher attitudes as well.  This is rare in the public-school arena, but it happens.

This is not to say that every private school is staffed 100% with creative and inspiring teachers.  So, it’s a good idea to evaluate several teachers in any school because, as in any profession, there are good ones and bad ones.  One question you can ask while observing any teacher in action might be, “Is this teacher teaching the subject or teaching students.”  The difference is the attitude that the teacher has toward students.  Teachers who love their subject and are just looking for loyal students to absorb their wisdom do not interact with the young people as much.

But teachers who are real educators are fascinated with the learning process in students and love the interaction between student and teacher.  You can tell if the instructor likes students, and affection is two ways by watching the body language of teacher and students.  If there is a lot of eye contact, frequent smiling, and laughter, and there is a genuine joy in the room, that is a teacher who was put on this earth to be doing this one task.  And that is the kind of teacher you want your child to be learning from.

While you are more likely to encounter this kind of teacher in the private school setting, these are the real gems that make any school they work in excellent.  But if you find one particular school where this is the kind of teacher you meet the most as you review classes, that reflects that in addition to teachers who are all about education and all about making great students, you have also found a school that from the administration on down is devoted to taking young people and making them beautiful scholars and lovers of knowledge.  And when you find that school, make it your child’s home because that is the place to be.

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